In this final interview, which predates The Wizard(2004), Wolfe is, perhaps, at his most enigmatic. His occasionally terse responses should remind any critic or commentator that he or she is in the presence of a writer every bit as unreliable as his narrators.

The following interview was conducted with Gene Wolfe by e-mail between August and October of 2003. Henceforward, Wolfe is GW, Michael Andre-Driussi is MD, James B. Jordan is JJ, and Nick Gevers is NG.

MD: Read any good books lately?

GW: Yes. Adventures Among Books, by Andrew Lang; Being Gardner Dozois, by Michael Swanwick; and The New Wave Fabulists, edited by Peter Straub.

MD: What would you do with NASA?

GW: What would I do with NASA? Obviously that would depend on how much money I had to work with. But basically I'd put more effort into spaceboat development and less into flying missions of dubious worth. NASA has suffered two disastrous crashes, the Challengerand the sainted Columbia. Both were vehicle failures. It needs a better boat.

MD: What conventions are you planning to attend? Would you go to one overseas?

GW: The only convention on my schedule now is Windycon. That's quite near here, in November. I wouldn't attend an overseas con, or any distant con. Rosemary isn't up to travelling, and I'm not about to go away and leave her here alone.

MD: Tell us about your dogs.

GW: We only have one dog now. Calamity Jane had to be put down. She was very old, and her medicine no longer controlled her seizures. Dilly is five now, I think. He's a neutered American Pit Bull Terrier, very gentle, about the colour of buckskin.

MD: What are your thoughts on the US military actions going on around the world (Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia)?

GW: The US military is already spread too thin. Sending American troops into Liberia was not only foolish but foolhardy.

MD: In the last few years world events have brought a new urgency to a few stories that you wrote in the 1970s: ‘The Blue Mouse’ [1971, collected in Gene Wolfe's Book of Days]; ‘Hour of Trust’ [1973, collected in The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories]; and ‘Seven American Nights’ [1978, also collected in IODDAOSAOS].